Papillons in Cyberspace

Papillons in Cyberspace

When God made the earth and sky, the flowers and the trees, He then made all the animals, and all the birds and bees.

And when His work was finished, not one was quite the same, He said, "I'll walk this Earth of mine, and give each one a name."

And so He traveled land and sea and everywhere He went, a little creature followed him, until its strength was spent.

When all were named upon the earth, and in the sky and sea, the little creature said, "Dear Lord, there's not one left for me."

The Father sniffled and softly said, "I've left you 'til the end. I've turned my own name back to front, and called you Dog, my friend."

--- Author Unknown (but brilliant)

Welcome to my boys' home on the web. My boys are purebred Papillons (PAH-pee-yawn), which is french for "butterfly" (thus the name Canis papilio, "Butterfly Dog"). Papillons as a breed are approximately 300 to 600 years old or older. Papillons can often be seen in paintings of French royalty, and it is said that Marie Antoinette carried one with her to the guillotine. The dogs in these paintings differ slightly from my boys as the mutation that caused erect ears in the breed did not occur until the 19th century. The drop-eared form still exists and is called Phalene (FAH-len). Today, in the US, Papillons and Phalenes are considered the same breed (called Papillon by the AKC), while in Europe they are considered varieties of the Continental Toy Spaniel. Papillons are highly intelligent (on par with herding dogs), have a good, playful, temperament, generally consider themselves to be big dogs (owing to their spaniel heritage), are canny hunters, and make top-notch agility dogs.